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Is this what we have come to?

 
Published May 19, 2014

When the officers came to her home, the 9-year-old girl was still wet from running through the neighborhood sprinkler. She wore flip-flops, a pink towel and a swimsuit. The officers took her away wearing handcuffs.

Her mother's response said it all: "She's just a child."

Yes, you read that correctly: Police officers in Portland, Ore., handcuffed a 9-year-old-girl and took her to the station. They photographed and fingerprinted her and detained her for an hour before her mother arrived. Her "crime"? Getting in a fight with another kid — a fight that took place a week beforehand and ended with apologies on all sides.

It all started with a scuffle on a basketball court at a Boys & Girls Club. Witnesses told police the 9-year-old got in the middle of a dispute between two other girls who had been arguing because one tattled on the other for drawing on a desk. The 9-year-old later ended up in a fistfight with one of the girls outside the club. Staff members found no injuries on either girl. The girls apologized to each other. The 9-year-old was suspended from the club for one week.

Done and done, right? Wrong. After receiving a call from the mother of the other girl involved in the fight, police arrived at the 9-year-old's home to investigate. Finding the 9-year-old's statements "inconsistent" with witness reports, the officers took her into custody, accusing her of fourth-degree assault.

Departmental policy mandates that juveniles taken into custody for any Class A misdemeanor "shall" be fingerprinted and photographed.

One year later, the 9-year-old has transferred to another school because of teasing about the incident and has been in counseling since last June. "She is a different child," said her mother, LaToya Harris.

When Harris filed a complaint with the police department, it found the officers violated no departmental policies. So she took her story to the Citizen Review Committee, which hears complaints of alleged officer misconduct against Portland police. Now, concerned citizens are demanding changes in departmental policy.

Years ago, handcuffing a 9-year old after an incident like this would have been unthinkable — everyone would have forgotten about it in a week. We look forward to seeing changes in departmental policy that give officers more discretion to treat squabbles between kids with the gentle touch they require.

Evan Bernick is visiting legal fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation.